The innovative activity of the teacher is an integral part of the process of his professional development. Those who work in the traditional system, just mastering the technique, which is a complex of training skills. Already this will allow to carry out educational work in full and at the same time achieve certain successes. However, for the implementation of the innovative activity of the teacher, one of his professional training is not enough. At the same time, the teacher’s readiness to embark on the path of improvement is also important.
Definition of a concept
What do we mean by the innovative activity of a teacher? This is something new, when compared with the previous one, aimed at improving the quality of education. In general, the term "innovation" in its modern sense means the manifestation of new elements or forms. A synonym for this word is "innovation."
The innovative activity of a modern teacher is considered a little deeper, while having a broader meaning. It is understood as the purposeful work of the teacher, based on the comprehension of their own professional experience by studying and comparing the educational process to change it and obtain a better education.
We can say that the innovative activity of a teacher is a phenomenon in which the creative potential of a teacher is reflected. If we consider this term from the point of view of its application to the general educational process, then we can talk about its relative youth. And this explains the existence of various approaches to explaining this concept.
On the one hand, pedagogical innovations are understood as various innovations aimed at changing the technology of education and training to increase their effectiveness. But sometimes a different meaning is embedded in this concept. Innovations include not only the creation and dissemination of innovations, but also the changes and transformations in the way of thinking and in the way of activity that are associated with these innovations. In any case, it is something progressive, useful, advanced, modern and positive.
Currently, in Russia there are processes of standardization of all levels of education, without exception. This led to the creation of the GEF. The aim of this work is a certain unification and accessibility for the widespread practical use of scientifically provided experimental work in education and training. The innovative activity of the teacher in the context of the implementation of the GEF is designed to make positive changes in the current education system. This is necessary for Russia to enter the international market, which offers similar services, and to bring the curricula of schools and preschool education in line with those that are considered generally accepted throughout the world.
Signs of innovation
The process of introducing various innovations into the educational process largely depends on the potential of the teacher himself. How to determine the readiness of a teacher for innovation? The potential of the personality in this case is associated with such parameters as:
- the presence of creative ability to generate and produce new ideas and ideas, as well as design and model them in practice;
- readiness for something different from the existing ideas, a new one, the basis of which becomes panorama and flexibility of thinking, as well as tolerance of character;
- education and development in the cultural and aesthetic terms;
- the desire to improve their activities, as well as the presence of internal methods and means that will provide it.
The teacher’s readiness for innovative activity is also understood as having a great capacity for work, the ability to restrain strong irritants, a high emotional status and a desire to be creative in his work. But in addition to personalities, a teacher must also have some special qualities. These include knowledge of new technologies, the ability to develop projects, mastery of the latest teaching methods, as well as the ability to analyze and identify the causes of existing shortcomings.
Specificity of Innovation
The participation of teachers in innovation has its own characteristics. It implies the presence of the necessary degree of freedom among the relevant entities. Indeed, due to its specificity, the innovative activity of a teacher in a preschool educational institution and in schools is most often carried out by touch. The fact is that such solutions are beyond the scope of existing experience. It is also worth noting that to date, the innovative activity of the teacher in the implementation of the GEF is regulated and controlled only partially. In this regard, one has to trust the innovator, researcher, assuming that everything he does in the process of searching for new solutions and truth will not harm the interests of society.
This approach leads to the realization that the freedom of creativity should go along with the high personal responsibility of the teacher engaged in innovative activities.
The Importance of Innovation
Is the organization of innovative activity of a teacher so necessary? The importance of this direction is due to the fact that in modern conditions the development of education, culture and society is impossible without:
- socio-economic changes, suggesting the need to update the entire training system, as well as technologies and techniques for organizing the cognitive process in educational institutions of various types;
- Strengthening the humanization of the content of curricula, which is expressed in a continuous change in the volume and composition of disciplines, the introduction of new subjects, suggesting a constant search for improved teaching technologies and organizational forms;
- changes in the attitude of the teacher to the application and development of innovations;
- the entry of educational institutions into the system of market relations, which will form their real degree of competitiveness.
What, in the end, necessitates the development of innovative activities of the teacher? The main reason for this trend is the fierce competition that every team that offers educational services faces almost everywhere.
Today, all educational institutions must independently increase their level of work, monitor and be able to predict the situation in the relevant market, and be a little ahead of everyone using the latest scientific and technological achievements.
Signs of Innovation
What can be said about the participation of teachers in innovation? This question is both complex and simple. On the one hand, one can easily identify the latest approaches and techniques that a teacher applies. After all, they have differences from those that were used before their implementation. On the other hand, it is very difficult to describe and justify innovative activity. After all, innovation is not just a fixation of any particular fact. Each of the forms of innovative activity of a teacher represents a whole system.
In its description, the purpose and content, terms of implementation, existing problems and their solution must be present. That is, everything that innovation is aimed at. The methods for analyzing the results obtained should also be explained. It is necessary to give an indication of the forms of innovative activity of the teacher.
Classification of Innovation
According to their purpose, all the latest implementations in the training system are conditionally divided into:
- General These are global concepts available in modern education. They find their manifestation in the optimization of UVP, the development of humanistic principles, practical and information technologies, as well as in the organization and management of pedagogical processes.
- Private They take place in cases where the innovative experimental activity of teachers takes the form of copyright innovations developed in accordance with the modern directions of the educational process, and is implemented in a separate public institution.
By belonging to the educational process, innovative activity is associated with:
- With the introduction of an integrated approach into the education system. Indeed, the traditional system of obtaining knowledge is guided by the level of technologies and sciences that has already been reached and is not able to meet the requirements of a society in its dynamic development.
- With the organization of the entire educational process and the introduction of the latest pedagogical technologies, which are the main factor in the development of innovative methods and means of obtaining knowledge.
- With specialization and profiling of general education. Such directions suggest the formation of the necessary conditions for the innovative activity of a teacher with its transition to a system of flexible and open continuous individualized training of a person throughout her life.
- With the professionalization of existing management activities. This is one of the conditions for the effectiveness and success of innovative directions in OS.
Based on the concept of updating and content of educational processes, an innovative activity of a teacher is divided into a methodically-oriented and also problem-oriented. Let's consider them in more detail.
Methodically oriented activities
With its application, it is supposed to implement one or another educational technology. It could be:
- use of the latest information technologies;
- application of the principle of integration to the content of education.
In addition, based on the experience of the teacher’s innovative activity in the framework of methodically oriented work, he can use the following training:
- developing;
- differentiated;
- design;
- problematic;
- programmed;
- modular.
In the application of such technologies, a prerequisite is the preparedness and competence of the teacher, who is able to use such approaches as:
- Personally oriented. It can be achieved by implementing a strategy of support and respect, understanding, assistance and cooperation of the DOE administration in the field of choosing means and methods of teacher's work.
- Essential. It is reflected in the interaction of teachers with students to develop their abilities in order to form essential system knowledge and establish intersubject communications.
- Operational activity. This approach is based on the positions of the GEF. Students form the ability to act during the educational process, assimilating knowledge through their practical application.
- Professionally oriented. This is a competency based approach. It allows students to develop professional attitudes.
- Acmeological. This approach is closely related to the essential. It is used in the organization of innovative education with the development of new, as well as the updating of existing teaching methods and means. This approach allows students to form creative thinking and contributes to their self-development, self-improvement, self-education and self-control.
- Creative developing. This approach is designed to shape productive thinking. He develops students' creative attitude to their activities, as well as the abilities and qualities of a creative person, skills and abilities of a scientific and creative nature.
- Contextual. This approach allows us to bring the content of the curriculum into line with the state educational standard developed in the country.
Problem Oriented Activities
Such innovative processes provide for the solution of a certain type of tasks that are associated with the formation of a person's high degree of competitiveness.
The activities of the teacher are aimed at the formation of students:
- awareness of their personal and social significance;
- the ability to set goals for self-complication of problems and tasks, as well as self-actualization, which is a prerequisite for the creative development of a competitive person;
- An adequate feeling of freedom and justified risk, which contributes to the formation of responsibility in the decisions taken;
- the maximum concentration of their abilities in order to realize them at the most opportune moment, which is called “delayed victory”.
One of the most pressing problems that the modern education system is trying to solve is to educate a socially competitive person. Such a concept includes professional sustainability, social mobility of the individual and its ability to carry out the process of advanced training. In doing so, students should be trained in susceptibility to innovation. This will make it easier for them in the future to change the sphere of activity, the professional environment, and be always ready to move to a new area of work, which is more prestigious.
A competitive personality can be formed at this stage in the development of society only through the introduction and inclusion of methodological and problem-oriented innovations in the learning process.
Additional classification
Also in the education system, the following types of innovations are distinguished:
- In scale - federal and regional, national-regional and at the level of public institutions.
- In terms of pedagogical orientation, they are isolated (local, private, individual, that is, not connected with each other), modular (a chain of private innovations connected among themselves), systemic.
- By origin - improved (modified), combined (attached to a previously known component), fundamentally new.
Innovation Challenges
Often, the conduct of innovation is difficult for educators. This is what affects the need for scientific and methodological support of their work. The formal nature of the ongoing innovative work, which can often be observed in OS, is caused by:
- low level of basic teacher training;
- the formation of the environment in a classic, traditional mode;
- a low degree of readiness for innovation;
- lack of motivation due to congestion;
- the inability to determine for itself the most priority direction, which causes a dispersal of activity and does not give a tangible result.
At the same time, it is impossible to imagine the work of modern OS without innovative techniques. But for the implementation of their goals, teachers need some form of support. For some, psychological support is important, for others, an individual consultation with a methodologist or practice teacher. One of the prerequisites for innovative work is the availability of a sufficient amount of special educational literature, as well as the latest material and technical base.
The innovative activity of teachers in the modern education system should become a personal category, a kind of creative process and the result of creative activity. It also involves the presence of a certain degree of freedom in the actions of the relevant actors.
The main value of the innovative activity carried out by the teacher lies in the fact that it allows you to create a personality capable of self-expression and the use of their abilities at the same time as creativity. Those difficulties that arise in the process of such work, according to many practitioners, can be resolved on their own.
The main result will be:
- Creation of an innovative infrastructure that will ensure the study, sustainable development and further implementation of best practices;
- occupying a leadership position in educational services;
- Creation of a positive image of the staff of the educational institution.